1-2 EDWARD VII. 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



A. 1902 



Yl 



REPORT ON I HE SARDINE INDUSTRY IN RELATION TO 

 THE CANADIAN HERRING FISHERIES. 



BY B. ARTHUR BENSLEY, B.A., &c., LATE FELLOW IN BIOLOGY, 

 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, AND OF THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 

 NEW YORK, U.S.A. 



The present investigation was undertaken at the suggestion of the Director of the 

 Marine Biological Station of Canada, Professor Prince, Dominion Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, the purpose in view being to determine whether or not the noticeable decline 

 in the herring fisheries of the Bay of Fundy, and the western Nova Scotia coast, is 

 attributable to the operation of the so-called sardine weirs, or brush traps, especially off 

 the New Brunswick shores. In these weirs, which are really wicker-work inclosures, 

 vast numbers of young fish, largely belonging to the Family Clupeidje, are annually 

 captured. Between seven and eight hundred of these traps are fished every season 

 under licenses issued by the Dominion Government, and on some of the West Isles off 

 Passamaquoddy Bay limited parts of the shore are thickly studded with these fish- weirs. 

 It is alleged by fishermen in the waters further north, especially in St. John County, 

 N.B., that there has been a serious decrease in the supply of full-grown herring, indeed 

 that certain schools, which provided important fisheries in former years, have totally 

 disappeared. In Digby County, N.S., a similar allegation is made. ' How can you 

 expect the herring in the upper part of the Bay of Fundy and in the Annapolis Basin 

 and St. Mary's Bay to continue plentiful, if they are destroyed and exterminated in the 

 New Brunswick sardine weirs before reaching maturity ? ' wrote a prominent authority 

 in Nova Scotia not long ago. Professor Prince in a special report to the Honourable 

 the Minister of Marine and Fisheries in 1895 referred to this alleged injury in the follow- 

 ing terms (28th Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, pp. xxxi. 

 and xxxii.) : — 



' It is doubtful whether any fishery can withstand for long so serious a drain upon 

 immature individuals. No doubt the hardy nature of the herring's eggs and fry help to 

 keep up the numbers ; but other species of fish in the sea would succumb were specimens 

 that had never spawned captured in such vast quantities. All efforts to diminish the 

 supply of herring here, as in Great Britain, have had apparently little effect. Some 

 authorities have explained the non appearance of the large winter herring in the Bay of 

 Fundy, as for example in 1891, by the continued destruction of small fish for sardine 

 purposes. The run of sardines also has shown at times a very marked diminution, but 

 not more than may be attributed to the ordinary fluctuations of such a fishery. Indeed, 

 it is a striking fact that in the years 1890-91 these small fishes were more abundant 

 than they had been for twenty years previously. 



It cannot, therefore, be said that the capture annually of vast quantities of immature 

 fish has had any serious effects. The possibility is suggested that a considerable propor- 

 tion of these small fishes may belong to other Clupeoids, though this is contrary to the 

 common opinion of those engaged in the sardine industry. 



It is still an open question, therefore, whether this destruction, on a large and 

 increasing scale is or is not calculated ultimately to endanger the supply of large herring. 

 If schools of young are killed ofi' before they have reached the spawning age, the general 

 catch of the future must ere long be affected.' 



22a-~5 59 



